Hidden Truths
by Nuttyginger
Summary: *Based on the plot of Buffy dying. * Cordelia finds that grief and guilt are too much a bitter pill to swallow and sets out to make a mends. Six years later Angel meets the new Slayer but it isn't all it seems even when Fate deals her hand.
1. Fates Brutal Hand

Set after the S2 Finale and unlike the usual, it is not based on Buffy dying just the plot idea of Buffy dying and instead centres around Angel and Cordelia but with a surprising twist.  
  
Summary: Guilt is a heavy burden to bear when the people you failed are around you everyday. Cordelia must choose between Fate and saving a soul.  
  
Disclaimer: it's simple, it ain't mine, it's Joss' so don't sue and I'll still have enough money to go to Uni!  
  
Feedback: Silly question...YES PLEASE! Send by form or directly to gingernutt@lycos.com!  
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*Hidden Truths*  
By  
Zoe Morrison  
  
  
The words seemed to echo around the mostly abandoned hotel. "Buffy Is Dead" Each echo hammering the words futher home. Willow rose, shattering the silent shock that had descended on the four people in the small office.  
  
"I think that I better go now, I have to go and tell Buffy's dad and make plans for Dawn. Angel I am so sorry that you couldn't have found out sooner."  
  
Willow looked down in sorrow at the devastated Vampire and shared his grief at the loss of their friend. Wesley joined her side, not knowing what to say to Angel or Cordelia, who was sobbing quietly in the corner.  
  
"I'll see you out Willow." He said placing a light hand on the Wiccas shoulder.  
  
The couple left, leaving Angel and Cordelia alone in the main office. Cordelia stood up from her corner and ran the back of her hand across her face, wiping away her tears. She reached out her hand tentatively and placed it on Angels shoulder.  
  
"Angel I'm so sorry about Buffy." Cordelia whispered.  
  
Angel whipped around, his vamp face on and bloody tears running from his yellowed eyes. "Sorry! Why would you be sorry? You should be glad, Buffy is dead, now you can make your move on me. That is what you have wanted to do ever since the Bronze."  
  
The tears were soon replaced as Angels words hit her like a sledgehammer. "Angel what are you saying? That I am glad Buffy is dead? I would never wish anyone dead. I tried it remember and it didn't work."  
  
"Why didn't you see it? Why didn't you see the worlds best Slayer die? Doyle did!" Cordelia stood still in shock. "If I hadn't been off saving you again then I could have stopped her dying. Instead I saved your life; I lost her because of you."  
  
Cordelia felt her world fall apart at his last sentence. She spun on her heels as all of her senses went into overdrive. Cordelia ran down the hall, grabbing her bag on the way out.  
  
Next Day:  
`````````  
Angel descended the hotels main staircase, having got no sleep the night before, dressed completely in black. He spotted Wesley sitting in his office, solemnly fixed on a text but seeing nothing on the page but meaningless words. He stuck his head around Cordeilas door expecting to see her with the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. Instead it was empty, having not been touch since Willow turned up the pervious day.  
  
"Where's Cordelia? Is she in?" Angel asked quietly.  
  
"No. She has a week of solid auditions so she phoned me last night to tell me she might not be around the office much. She sounded very upset about Buffy."  
  
Angel wandered into her office, her desk empty of files. There was a clear line in the dust on her desk where her picture of the Doyle and Angel had been: it was gone. He flicked through her rolla-deck to find her ID card was missing as well.  
  
A Week Later:  
`````````````  
Angel sat alone in his office, Wesley had left a hour before to go and have lunch with an old friend from his school days and Gunn was catching up with his homies. He was filing away the latest case, stilling trying to get to grips with Cordelias filing system when he spotted an A4 Black book, hiding away at the back of one of the cabinets. He pulled it out to find it was a diary with 'AUDITIONS' printed across the front of it. He flicked through the pages until he came across that weeks entries but it was empty. Cordelia hadn't had any auditions since two weeks before. She had lied to Wesley about where she was. He rushed over to her desk and dialled her apartment number but got an automated voice telling him her line had been disconnected. He dialled the cellphone number but it was switched off. Panic began to over take the Vampire as he picked up his duster and left the hotel via the sewage tunnels.  
  
Half an hour later he arrived at Cordelias apartment block and he knocked firmly on her door. There was no answer so Angel forced the lock open with one firm pull of the door handle. He found the apartment deserted of life and dust sheets covering all the original furniture, a thin layer of dust showing that she hadn't been there all week. A white envelope floated towards him, his name written in Cordelias scripture hand writing. Angel hurriedly opened the unsealed envelope and read the letter:  
  
Dear Angel,  
  
Now that you are reading this it means I have gone. As you can see the apartment is empty, any new tenants will probably be scared away by Dennis and his dodgy music.  
  
I took the cowards way out; I left, walked away. You were right, as always: It was my fault that you couldn't save Buffy and I am so sorry. I could never make it up to you, all that pain of losing the only one you truly loved. It is probably months since you last saw me and due to my uselessness, you haven't noticed I was missing from the office.   
  
I have left to try and find a way to make up for what part I played in Buffys death. There are so many people I have down: Buffy, Giles, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Wesley and even Spike in some twisted way. But I let you down the hardest and to see you everyday would both of us hurt too much.   
  
I won't be back so could you find some way to let Dennis go, I think he will be very lonely by now. He doesn't know where I am going, hell, even I don't know where I am going. Let me repay Buffys debt and maybe, when I'm ready, I'll come back.  
  
Faithfully Cordelia.  
  
The letter floated gracefully to the ground as Angel ran to her room and threw open her wardrobes to find them void of her clothes but her trapped scent flooding out over him. Angel stood in the middle of the living room, looking around at the starkness of the apartment. He turned towards the door and ran out to the sewers, leaving the door wide open. Dennis floated, dishearten, over to the door and closed it finally. He knew that Angel would never find Cordelia.  
  
FADE OUT  
  
Six Years Later:  
`````````````  
Angel watched, intrigued, from the shadows as the two figures moved and counter moved. Their figures, even with Angels eyesight, were silhouetted against LA's harsh city scape. The woman dived then high kicked at the demon who sunk painfully to the ground. She saw his moment of weakness and made her move. Angel watched in amazement as the woman pulled out a bladed axe and swiftly removed the demons head like a knife through hot butter. If he didn't know any better he would say the woman was a Slayer but he knew Faith was too heavily pregnant to slay and a phonecall from Willow the day before had told him that there was no sign of a new Slayer in Sunnydale yet. The woman looked up from the demons disappearing corpse and searched in Angels direction. He sunk futher into the bushes but the tall woman bolted off in the other direction.  
  
Angel revealed himself from the shadows and sniffed the air. The wind carried a hint of a familiar fragrance and it took him a few seconds to place it. It was the perfume that he had gave to Cordelia as the first Christmas present he had given anyone since Buffy. He had given it to her for their first Christmas as a trio, Cordelia, him and Doyle. He had searched for hours and eventually the counter girl had passed him a bottle and as soon as he smelt he knew that it matched Cordelia perfectly. It brought his senses alive and now he couldn't let it go. He watched a black Porshe roar away at high speed and back onto the main streets of LA. Curiosity got the better of him and he jumped onto the Chopper and pulled into the traffic after it. He lost the car after about 10 minutes and had to rely on his sense of smell to track the mystery woman.  
  
Angel followed the scent until he came to a beachside house. A black Porshe sat outside the front of the house in the large driveway, a light on at the side of the house and the livingroom fully lit. He sniffed the air a final time and found the scent surrounded the house and hung with the salt in the ocean air. He climbed the stairs and knocked cautiously on the door and stepped back as a figure neared the door.  
  
The door opened to reveal a tall, thin figure standing with a grey cat in her arms. The cat hissed at Angel as Angel stood with his eyes wide in surprise and his mouth open. The woman standing in the doorway mirrored his expression.  
  
"Cordelia?" Angel stammered.  
  
"Angel." Cordelia whispered back hoarsely.  
  
The two estranged friends stood for a few minutes just staring at each other before Cordelia connected her brain back up to her mouth and invited Angel into her home.  
Angel stepped wearily into the expansive livingroom, the cat watching him carefully from the safety of the open plan kitchen. Cordelia motioned for him to sit down on one of the huge black couches that were in the room. He looked around and saw the picture of them sitting on a lime wood sideboard against the back wall. It was sitting next to a picture of Cordelia dressed in a white muslin dress, roses in her hair, and she was standing next to a man who was dressed in a morning suit smiling broadly while a little girl dressed in a white summer dress held a small bouquet. Angel put the people together and realised that is was Cordelias wedding photograph and the man must be her husband. He looked around expecting to see him walk out one of the rooms, but no one did. Cordelia walked over to the opposite couch and placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of him on the coffee table.  
  
"So it was you in the bushes. You followed me back here." Cordelia started. "I thought I had sensed you but I have felt that a couple of times and always got away in time."  
  
"Cordelia what is going on? Where have you been? Why did you leave?" Angel asked, all the questions coming out at once.  
  
"Angel I had to leave. I had let everyone down and I knew you would never forgive me for stopping you saving Buffy so I walked out and left the apartment."  
  
"I saw you fighting a demon, I saw you kill it. You acted like a Slayer would. I don't get it." Angel looked directly at her confused.  
  
"That's me a Seer and Slayer in one. Two in the body of one. I was called to the Oracle Chamber the day after I left A.I and they knew that I wanted to make-up for Buffys death so they offered to take my visions away or I could become the next Slayer. I chose to become the next Slayer. All of a sudden I had all this strength and I could fight so that is what I have been doing for the last six years, without help from the Council. You never told that the Oracles were under the Post Office. Kinda poetic huh?"  
  
"So you've replaced...Buffy." He struggled to say a name that hadn't been spoken since Willow left LA six years ago. " I never meant those things I said. I was upset, angry and I was looking for someone to blame where there wasn't anyone. I never thought you would leave. I tried to find you but you vanished."  
  
"No you were right. I'm trying to make up for it now though." The cat padded back into the room and sat beside Cordelia. it started hissing at Angel again. "Don't worry, it's only because your a Vampire. Cats are sort of sensitive to these things. She protects me kinda like Dennis did but you can see a cat. What happened to Dennis?"  
  
"We couldn't set him free and we both were getting very lonely after you left so he haunts the hotel now and he found plenty to tidy up so we are happier together."  
  
Silence descending between the two, each revelling in the sight of the other.  
  
"So Wesley let you borrow the Chopper huh? How is the Watcher?"  
  
Angel inverted his eyes to the floor and searched for the right words to tell her. "Wesley died two years ago." He felt Cordelias shock "We were fighting a chaos demons and it got the upper hand. We tried to get away but he rammed the car and tipped it over. I was flung from the car and broke my back but it took 6 hours to cut Wesley from the ball of metal that was left after the demon had finished with it. He died later in hospital. You see we've both let people down."  
  
Cordelia felt her heart fill with sorrow that she couldn't have saved him as well but she had learned a long time ago that a Slayer can't save everyone. "What about Gunn? Is he OK?"  
  
Angel let out a small laugh. "He got married to Faith of all people. Their expecting their first baby in two weeks. Faith only got two years for GBH because they couldn't prove that she killed the Mayors assistant. You should see Gunn get goggily eyed over baby booties. I don't think Faith is going to slay anymore. So you got married as well huh?"  
  
Cordelia looked at the picture on the side board and her smile fell. "Yeah, after I left the Chamber I went to New York and stayed with my mother. I got a job working in the Plaza as a waitress and that is where I met Jack. He was a regular in the restaurant. He owned a shipping business and we were married 6 months later. I only ever married him because I was lonely and I needed to feel loved and wanted again."  
  
"So you got what you wanted? A rich husband, big house, and car to match."  
  
"Angel I had what I wanted before Darla then Buffy but I ruined it. Things were OK at first with Jack but he couldn't handle my nightly disappearing acts when I had to patrol. One night I came home and he accused me of having an affair. That was the end. We got a divorce, I got the half of the business that was in my name and I moved back here."  
  
"So did you have any kids? Who's the little girl in the photograph?"  
  
"She was Jacks niece. I still see her when she comes to LA. No we didn't have any kids, I can't have any." She saw Angels shocked face. "I was fighting a Butta demon and he had claw hands. One swipe and he sliced me open. The doctors said I was lucky to be alive but the scar that the claw left stops me having any children, not that a Slayer can have children sensibly anyway. I have Smokey, my cat, instead. so you still have the Vampire thing going on then."  
  
"Oh I got the permanent soul but I'm still waiting for the Shansu to happen. Wesley and I finished translating the scrolls before he died. We figured out that the battles and plagues all started when I got my soul and when I was in Sunnydale so we figure it should only be another 10 years or so. We translated that I get my Shansu given to me by Ruler or the Keeper of Sights, then I have to figure out what it is mean by 'The silence shall speak and the unions be joined.' So when I figure that out I will get my Shansu."  
  
"You don't sound excited about it." Cordelia stated.  
  
"I didn't seem worth it anymore because I have no one to share it with once Buffy had died and then you left me. I thought I could cope with Wesley but then I couldn't save him so I gave up on the whole human thing. I can't believe I've found you again."  
  
"Angel I never wanted you to find me. I have hurt you too much, with my moaning, saving me all the time and then Buffy. Has there been any sign of her coming back?"  
  
"No. If you have been called that means she did die and she isn't going to come back."  
  
Cordelia wrestled with her own thoughts as Angels pain was clearly displayed on his face. She had been granted the knowledge of the future on the condition she kept it safe. Cordelia knew what had happened to Buffy, one of the reasons she had taken on the Slayers life. But maybe this was the only way she could ever truly make it up to Angel and Buffy.  
  
"Angel what if I could tell you what has happened to Buffy?"  
  
Angel looked at her in disbelief and shock. "How could you know what happened to Buffy if you weren't even there when she died?" Angel asked, confused by Cordelias statement.  
  
"When I was granted my powers, I was also shown the future of those closest to the Powers so that I could protect them. I was told that I had to guard the future, I became Fate for the Powers closest. One of those was Buffy. I know where she is and what happened to her."  
  
Angel sat on the edge of his seat, unable to process what Cordelia was telling him. Cordelia respected his silence and continued; it was too late to stop.  
  
"When Glory died, Buffy was still alive - just. She was so badly injured that they didn't think that she would survive. The Council took over and flew her to England so that she could be treated where they knew how best to deal with a Slayer. For all she had disowned them, they still needed her in the field since they couldn't call another Slayer. She recovered all her strength and she was on her way back to America when she had an accident and lost her memory. The Council decided enough was enough and gave her a new identity as Anne. They lost contact with her but when I received Fate, I went to look for her and found her. She lives in London, in a house. She makes her living as an artist. They say she has untapped memories and the art is her trying to remember."  
  
Angel felt angry towards Cordelia. "Why didn't you come and find me. I could have went back to her and we could have been together. You said you wanted to make it up to me, why didn't you tell me?"  
  
Cordelia sympathised with the Vampires angst and felt his pain echo in her own heart. "Angel I didn't tell you because I wasn't allowed to. She is to never remember her past as the Slayer and she doesn't remember it. If she sees you you might stir up old memories even if she thinks she doesn't know you."  
  
"But I didn't even get to say goodbye to her. That's all I ever wanted, was a chance to say a proper goodbye."  
  
Cordelia wrestled with what she knew was the right thing to do and finding peace for her best friend. "I'll take you to where she lives, in London, but you can't talk to her or meet her. I'm sorry but that's the way it is." Angel nodded his head reluctantly. "Right meet me at LAX in an hour and we'll take my jet out. Don't worry, it can be sun proofed and given the time difference we should arrive there at around 9pm so the sun should have set."  
  
Angel parted her company in double haste and rushed straight back to the hotel having phoned ahead to get Dennis to pack some things for a trip. He didn't tell him that he had found Cordelia or that she was the Slayer: That would come later, once he had time to come to terms with it himself.  
  
  
He threw his bags at the taxi man and jumped in the back, trying to bribe him with extra if he would drive faster along the airport freeway. The cab skidded in the parking bay. Cordelia was waiting for him, free of baggage and a baggage man waiting to take his bags and escort them both to Cordelias jet. The blinds had all been pulled down and a blacked out car had been hired and was waiting for them in London. The large black limousine pulled up outside the hotel Cordelia had booked, the sad, dreary weather reflecting what they were both feeling inside. Angel was excited but heartbroken at the thought that Buffy had been alive for these six years and he hadn't known about it. Cordelia was apprehensive at the Powers That Be's punishment for breaking her six year old oath to them but glad that she could, at last, help her best friend find peace again.  
  
x-x-x-x-x-x  
  
Angel knocked tentatively on the Cordelias suites connecting door. A muffled 'come in' made him pull down the gold handle and he walked into Cordelias darkened room.  
  
"Cordelia are you ready to go yet? I really want to see her as soon as possible."  
  
"Angel, there is something I want you to see first so you can really understand why I don't want you to meet her. I know you want to see Buffy but you have to realise that things have changed for her. She isn't the Buffy that knows about Vampires and Masters and Helldemons; she's the Buffy that knows about dipers and water-colours. She isn't the Buffy who you fell in love with!"  
  
"She'll always be the Buffy that I fell in love with Cordelia." Angel snapped. "I even loved her when she killed me."  
  
Cordelia laid a claming hand on the old Vampires arm. "So why do you keep talking in the past tense?"  
  
"'Cos I loved someone else as well. I fell in love with you as well. Before you..."  
  
Cordelia stood in shock in the middle of her bedroom only moving to steady herself on one of it's four post. "Your lying! You can say what you want but I won't let you speak to her. Stop LYING Angel."  
  
"I'm not lying but you took off before I could tell you how I felt. God Cordelia this is a mess. You said you had something to show me."  
  
"It's a gallery, with Buffys work in it. Nothing major, just a private art house that exhibits art for students. I want you to see what she is trying to unlock when she paints, just like you when you draw."  
  
Angel nodded his head in a reluctant agreement and Cordelia reached for the phone to arrange for the limousine to pick them up.  
  
The gallery wasn't modern looking from the outside or indeed grand looking in anyway as Angel had grown to expect like the galleries in L.A. Cordelia took his hand and led him inside to the low-lit room, picture lights showing off the paintings to their best. She walked him passed pictures of naked women and men, bowls of distorted fruit until Cordelia stopped him in front of a dark looking picture of a field of wooden crosses towering at least 7 foot in the air. A black, silhouetted figure in the foreground caught his eye. The figure looked as if he were walking among the crosses, searching, looking for something he had lost. Angel looked for the artists name and almost choked in surprise... Anne Summers. Buffy had painted that picture. Cordelia put a knowing hand on Angels shoulder, knowing what he must be thinking.  
  
"It's called ''The Hunted Memory.' The figure in the picture is you, walking among the graves of all the people you killed. She doesn't know this because it is her untapped memories. Look at this one."  
  
Cordelia pointed to a large canvas with what looked like a spinning circle, a vortex, in bright purples and deep reds. A deed red heart was in the middle of it with a silver sword passing down through it and a wooden stake going the opposite direction.  
  
"Alcatha!" He muttered quietly to himself, though Cordelia heard it. A disadvantage of a Slayers hearing.  
  
"This one is what everyone said was her best work but not even I understand it and I was part of all this." Cordelia placed him in front of a smaller painting but just as powerful.  
  
A silver cross hung from a long matching chain and was suspended from a pale female hand, whos palms were facing upwards. Angel took in an unneeded breath and smiled.   
  
"It was the cross I gave Buffy when I first met her, the time I finished up on my butt. I left it in her hand just before I turned back in Angelus, when we..um..spent the night together." He looked sadly away from the painting, away from the pain.  
  
"I'm sorry, I should never have brought you here." Cordelia mumbled.  
  
Angel took her hand in his and smiled at her. "No I am glad you did. I understand everything now. I still wanna see her, but I promise I won't try anything else."  
  
The couple headed out to the waiting limousine and headed out to the Notting Hill area of the sprawling metropolis of London. The Victorian houses stood starkly together, an occasional fenced in garden in the middle of the houses. They pulled up, down the street from the house knew was Buffys and waited...They waited for a hour until a midnight blue Ford Focus pulled up outside the door and the familiar blonde stepped out. Cordelia heard Angel gasp at the sight of the thought dead Slayer.  
  
Anne Summers opened the back door of the little car and undid a seatbelt in the back and pulled out a chair like object. She locked up the car and turn towards her house. As Anne passed under a street lit, it's florescent beam caught the chair-like object and the fragile bundle it was carrying.  
  
Cordelia felt Angel turn to look at her, feeling the confusing look on his face. She had the same look but probably mixed with a little more surprise. The fragile bundle was a baby, a baby just three months old and, now, sadly without a father.  
  
Riley had died at the hand, or should that be claws, of a Ranther demon - thing that went bump in the night still intruding on Buffys new life. After she had 'died' Riley had came back to Sunnydale for her funeral and gave up all hope of love until a sighting from Forrest, who was in London tracking down a cult, had sworn he saw her. Riley didn't waste a minute, went AWOL and tracked her down to the same gallery where Angel had seen her work and she was there at a sale. They went on dates, got serious and then, three years after her accident, they were married in a little church in Suffolk.   
  
"Cordelia who is thing she is carrying?" angel asked the inevitable question.  
  
"Angel, it's a baby boy, not a thing. His name is Jack and he is about three months old."  
  
"That would mean she is married because Buffy said she would never have children unless she was married. She was traditional that way."  
  
"Yeah she was until last month when he...he died."  
  
"Who was he?"  
  
Cordelia turned away from the hurt Vampire. "Angel I don't think that...  
  
"Cordelia just tell me."  
  
"Riley!" She whispered. "He found her before you found me, three years ago. I'm sorry Angel but Fate had to take it's course, you said you understand. He died from complications after an operation to repair some kind of a heart murmur caused by the pills they gave him in the Army. Buffy is still recovering."  
  
Cordelia watched his face flash between anger and pity at the woman he once loved so powerfully but still held a place for her in his heart. "Angel the sun is nearly rising, I think that we should get back to the hotel and you can come back tomorrow night... without me. I can trust you now."  
  
Cordelia turned away, her long hair flickering in the breeze like a candle about to go out. Angel looked at his watch and saw it was only 2:00am but sensed Cordelia discomfort of the situation. He tore himself away from Buffys house and started off towards the Limousine. The driver stood by the door and motioned for Angel to get in. The driver muttered. 'Miss Chase may be gone sometime.' Angel nodded and got inside the sleek black car. Inside a white envelope sat on the crisp leather seat, Cordelias handwriting gracing the front of it. Angels stomach it the floor, this is how Cordelia had left the last time. He tentatively opened the sealed shell and pulled out a white piece of paper:  
  
'Dear Angel,  
You don't know what finding you has meant to me and now that I have paid back my debt to you I feel released. But now I have one more twist to Fate to make in order to fulfil a promise I made to the Oracles. I knew that once you found Buffy you wouldn't let her go so I am helping you on you way, removing the only obstacle standing in your path: Me! Don't try and find me as I am probably gone...again. Go to Buffy if that is what your heart wants; don't make the mistake I made and go with heart because it knows what it wants. Let me explain a few things: First of all I am the one who grants you your Shansu. You see I am the Keeper of Fate as well as Sights so Wesley got I wrong again. 'The Silence Shall Speak' is us..we are the warriors that are silent and now that we have straighten things out we are no longer silent!!! I always said the Powers were warped in some way. Our union comes in the shape of a little girl called Hope who will come to you age 2. She is our little girl. I know what you about to say: I'm a Vampire, you can't have kids, the Powers have screwed us over again but this time it is for real. She is in every way genetically ours, our blood, our features and YES she is half Vampire but they say without the blood lust. Look after her as your own because she will be your FIRST shot at parenthood. Twice tonight I will borrow someone else's words but this one is a poem read by my Aunt at my Grandma's funeral.  
  
Do not stand at my grave and weep,  
I am not there, I do not sleep.  
I am a thousand winds that blow,  
I am the diamond glint on the snow.  
I am the sunlight on the ripened grain,  
I am the gentle autumn rain.  
When you awake in the morning hush,  
I am the swift uplifting rush.  
Of quiet birds in circling flight,  
I am the soft starshine at night.  
Do not stand by my grave and cry,  
I am not there, I did not die.  
  
I'm sorry, Love Cordelia.  
  
Angel scrunched the letter in his hand as a silent tear ran down his cheek in an effort of his soul to rationalise the meaning of Cordelias words 'I am not there, I did not die.' She was going to kill herself, to stop Fate from dictating HIS future. She was doing this for him. Angel closed his eyes and imagined he was in Cordelias body, looking out of Cordelias eyes, seeing what she was seeing. He remembered it from his days in London with Darla, Dru, and Spike. She was heading near Hyde Park, fresh from a Vampire battle, he could smell their scents. He shouted to the driver to take him there and reluctantly he agreed.   
  
The limo pulled up as Angel watched Cordelia stumble away from a fledgling Vampire, now dust in the airless night. He pounced from the car and landed in front of the exhausted Slayer/Seer.  
  
"ANGEL!" She shouted "What are you doing here? I told you had business to take care of."  
  
"This is business that is going top stay unfinished. I figured out your coded message. I thought I was the only one who was allowed to be cryptic."  
  
"Angel just leave it." She shouted weakly, the tears streaming down her face. "I have to do this, it's my pay back, my punishment."  
  
"I think that we have punished each other enough, don't you?"  
  
"NO! I seen the way you looked at Buffy, you still love her. Well I am giving the only chance to be with her." Cordelia closed her eyes and started to chant:  
  
I See The End,  
I Hold The Future  
Let him Be Free  
A Child To Nurture.  
His Soul Sealed  
His Demon Gone  
Let His Heart  
Beat Its Now Faithful Song  
  
Angel felt the pain rip through him as the blood began to pump again around is body, his long un-used heat starting to pulse again, the warmth flooding back through his body. His hearing was still acute, the strength still built up in his body like 'Popeye'. Cordelia still looked crystal clear in front of him, through the black of night.  
  
Cordelia looked at him and smiled at his flushed colour. She turned away from his and moved towards the pavement edge. Two blinding lights neared them at the legal limit of 60mph and Cordelia saw them, saw her chance. She stepped off the pavement and onto the tarmac of the road. A blaring horn, a dull thud and a screeching halt sealed Cordelia Chase: The Vampire Slayer's Fate.  
  
Angel tried to reached out and grab her but she was too far ahead of him. He watched her thin body being thrown over the bonnet and hitting the windscreen. The smash of the windscreen echoed through him, the final thud as she hit the cold, hard tarmac. Angel ran to her side as the car skidded to a halt thirty meters down the road. He rolled her body into his lap, comforted by his strong arms.  
  
"Cordelia don't go!" Angel cried, in crystal clear tears.  
  
"YOU can't cheat Fate Angel, but I can. Let it be and take care of Hope." She snuggled her ear closer to his jumper, searching for the long redundant sound.   
  
Angel held her as her heart slowed, muffled then stopped. The last sound she heard was the Lub-Dub of his own heartbeat. A life in exchange for a life.  
  
-x-x-x-x-x-x  
  
Angel stood next to the freshly covered grave and let a single tear of mourning fall down his cheek. Cordelias grave sat next to the grave of the man he hated and thanked in every way he had ever known.  
  
'Riley Finn'  
'Your Son Will Know You'  
'Died 12.11.06'  
  
The petite blonde slowly made her way along the grass path that marked the boundaries between graves. The carrier in her hand swung gently in the late afternoon sunshine, it's passenger sleeping soundly. She noticed the black clad figure, almost silhouetted against the orange sky of the setting sun. She noted the new grave beside her husbands. The mourner looked up in her direction with familiarity in his eyes.  
  
"It gets easier you know." She started.  
  
Angel was taken aback at her long unheard voice. It filled him like an echo in a cavern; slowly growing louder then fading altogether. "Not in any lifetime. I won't get her back this time."  
  
"You have any kids? They help you pull out of it."  
  
"Yeah, one, a little girl called Hope. She's about Two years old."  
  
"Two Years old? Then she'll need her daddy now that her mum has gone. I lost my husband only a month ago. It's hard but they need you more than you need grief. We all have a part of us we don't know until some event unlocks it."  
  
"I know. I knew who you were before the accident, when you first met Riley at Sunnydale University, when your mum died and we sat by the tree like we had forever. I know what events your missing but I'll never know what I missed out of her life."  
  
Buffy turned her face away from Rileys grave at the mention of her accident: no one except Riley knew about it. Sunnydale? Her mum? Instead she found the dark man gone and a silver ring like the one on her middle left finger rocking gently on Rileys grave.   
  
Sunnydale was a good place to start.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Sadness in my eyes  
No-one guessed, well no one tried  
You smiled at me  
Like Jesus to a child  
Loveless and cold  
With your last breath you saved my soul   
You smiled at me   
Like Jesus to a child  
And what I have learned  
From all these tears  
I waited for you all these years  
Then just when it begun  
You take your love away  
But still I stay...  
  
George Michael - Jesus To A Child 


	2. 'Daddy'

-x-x-x-x-  
This is dedicated to JD who inspired me with her/his review, to write a sequel. And may thanks to everybody who reviewed Part One especially Cordy2K.  
  
Hidden Truths - Part Two  
----------------------------------------------  
'Daddy'  
```````````  
  
You're the sweet crusader  
And you're on your way  
You're the last great innocent  
And that's why I love you.  
  
Alanis Morissette - Mary Jane.  
  
The sticky LA night air clung to Angel as he disembarked from the plane at LAX. It had been a hard decision for him to come back to LA, after all what did he have? A ghost and now a broken heart all over again and all the time he wanted to brood in his empty hotel. His mind flashed back to the days when Cordelia would come and literally drag him out of his brooding sessions but the memory caused his heart to break afresh. He tried to flood his mind with happy thoughts, not an easy task for a cursed human, and the first one was of Gunn and Faith. They now had a new born baby boy to keep them busy, named Wesley as a reminder to the friend they had lost. He didn't have time anymore to worry about things he couldn't change, he had to prepare for his daughter, his and Cordelias daughter. The list of questions he had grew everyday as to how a dead Vampire could father a baby, never mind with someone who medically couldn't have children. When will she be arriving? Why him? The convertible was still waiting where he had left it 3 weeks before; before when he was with Cordelia. His ride back to the hotel was made in a mixture of dread and fear. How was he going to look after a baby? He didn't know the first thing about children and he still had to help in the fight for the PTB. What kind of life could he offer her? He didn't have any answers but he knew a Wicca that would...Willow.  
-x-x-x-x-  
Angel threw his bags across the marble entrance floor of the hotel not caring where they landed. He didn't need to think as he dialled the Sunnydale number, he had after all been in constant contact with Willow, looking for the new Slayer.  
  
"Hi, Willow, it's Angel."  
  
"Angel where have you been? I've been trying to get in contact with you for two weeks now. The new..."  
  
"Willow I know about the new Slayer, I was there when the old one died. I found Cordelia again, she was the Slayer" He heard Willow gasp on the other line. "She died in a hit and run. Listen I need you to do some research for me on any prophecies regarding me and Cordelia as the Keeper of Sights or Fate."  
  
"We know about this one, you find the Keeper and they turn you human but it doesn't involve Cordelia or the Slayer."  
  
"Cordelia did grant me my Shanshu but she also told me that we have a child together called Hope. She is genetically mine and Cordelias but it is impossible, can you shed any light on it?" Angel strained.  
  
"Well there has been cases of Vampires and Humans producing offspring. It's always been between a male Vampire and a female Human so that agrees with you and Cordelia, they are called Dhampir. But that can only happen if you and Cordelia...well sleep together...Angel did you sleep with Cordelia?" Willow asked curios at what Angel hadn't told her about his time in LA.  
  
"No! I only just found her again and told her how I really felt. We never had a chance...What am I going to do Willow?" Angel sighed in exasperation.  
  
"God Angel, your not going to go through this alone. I'll get there as soon as I can, just hold on."  
  
Two figures entering the hotel drew Angels attention away from Willows conversation. "Um Willow, I think that Hope has arrived. I'll see you soon."  
  
He put down the phone and turned to the shortish man and the little brown haired girl that stood protectively beside him. He motioned them futher into the hotel and started to walk towards them. The little girl shied futher away from Angels advancing steps and sucked harder on the little pink rabbits ear she was carrying.  
  
"Warrior Angel, I presume. My name is David and I was Hopes guardian."  
  
Angel looked down at the little girl and was struck by her resemblance to himself and Cordelia. Her brown curls swished around her face as she slowly peered around David's legs, looking at him with big brown eyes in caution. Angel bent down in front of his small child and put out his hand. "My name is Angel. You must be Hope. I'm very glad to meet you Hope." Angel extended his hand towards the girl. She looked at him and then stepped forward. She reached out a small hand, the other still holding her bunny, and placed it palm down in Angels.  
  
"Angels a funny name isn't it?" She wrinkled her nose just like Cordelia did when she was researching demons. Angel could do little but stare at his daughter in front of him. A silent tears rolled down his cheek, a new feeling to his human body. Hope reached up and wiped away the tear before looking back to him. "Angels don't cry."  
  
Angel stood up and David thrust a rucksack into his hands. "These are all the things that Hope has, I'm afraid that we lived a...mobile life. You must protect her with your new found life as she holds the key to all the light. Here." He handed Angel a file folder. "These are all the documents you'll ever need for her. Birth certificate, medical cards and records. I've made up a list of her favourite things, dislikes, diet and such things. I must go now, and I wish you luck. She does not know of her mothers fate nor that you are her father but I will leave it up to you to tell her in your own time."  
  
David bent down and picked up the child, smothering her hair against his cheek. Well Munchkin I have to go now but Angel is going to take care of you from now on."  
  
"Will I see you again?" Hope asked, her eyes filling up with tears as the man turned around to leave.  
  
"You have a new life now Munchkin and I have to go and take care of someone else. Angel is a good man, he'll make sure you don't get into to much trouble."  
  
Angel held Hope to his legs as David turned and walked away from the duo. Hope turned into his legs and began to cry, he could feel her tears through his trousers. Maternal instinct kicked in and Angel picked the girl up and held her close to his chest. She put her arms around his neck and clung to him as if he was going to leave her too. He moved them over to the couch as Hope continued to sob slowing down until she fell asleep in his arms. Angel gazed down at her, she looked exactly like Cordelia when she slept over at the hotel. Angel would sit for hours just watching her sleep, whispering soothing words in her ear as she tossed and turned from a nightmare. He was only disturbed from his musing by the hotel door creaking open.   
  
Willow stared at the ex-Vampire sitting on the couch with a little girl sleeping in his arms. It reminded her of lions lying with lambs but this was more a reward than a fable and it was real in front of her. The hotel hadn't changed in the 6 fateful years since she had last been there but she knew that was more Angels reluctance to move on than anything else, now he didn't have any choice.  
  
"Willow I'm so glad you came." Angel gently placed Hope on the couch and made his way over to Willow, who was standing with a trolley case in her hand.  
  
Willow sensed Angels awkwardness and drew him into a warm embrace. "How could I not come? You have so much to deal with and with two new babies in the gang how could I resist?"  
  
Angel chuckled slightly. "Willow I haven't a clue what I'm doing!"  
  
"Right does she have a room?" She noted Angels embarrassed expression. "Right well where's your room?"  
  
"On the third floor. That's to far away. She can have...Cordy's old room, it's on the first floor, room 122. You can take the room next to it and I'll just stay in my room when I get back."  
  
"Angel she will need to be near her daddy. It's a strange place for her and your the only one she knows. I'll take your room and you take mine. How about I put her to bed and you put on some coffee. Night clothes?"  
  
"I don't know. Here." He handed her Hope rucksack. "If not, Cordelia had some old high school T-shirts, use one of those for now."   
  
Angel turned away in sadness at the sound of Cordelias name. He was in the same state now as he was over Buffys death, only worse because Cordelia had died in HIS arm to give HIM a chance at life. Willow took Angels silence as a signal to take Hope upstairs. She picked up Hope over her shoulder and made her way upstairs, following the old room guide on the wall. A rush of cool air swept passed her and opened the door to room 122 for her. Willow let out a small squeak but it was enough to bring Angel running to her, smelling the fear in the air.  
  
"Willow, what's wrong?" Angel asked looking at Hope and then Willow. Willow managed to unfreeze herself and point to the room where the white dust sheets were being pulled off the furniture and the large four poster bed. "Oh that's Dennis, Cordelias ghost. He sort of haunts the place and loves to tidy all the time. Dennis, Willow. Willow, Dennis."  
  
Dennis floated over to Willow and plucked the rucksack from Willows hands. He began to unpack it, placing the clothes and toys in it, into little neat piles. He pulled Cordelias faded 'SUNNYDALE HIGH' T-shirt from the closet and set it on the now pulled back bed.  
  
"Willow, I have to go out but I'll be back before 3am. Make yourself at home and stop worrying about me." He said as if he were reading Willows mind.  
-x-x-x-x-  
Angel stood before the little stone basin and took a deep needed breath.  
  
"I Besiege Access To The Knowing Ones."  
  
"WHAT GIFT DO YOU BRING US MORTAL?"  
  
Angel tossed a CD in the air and the female oracle caught it. The chamber filled with the soft tune of Debussy's Claire de Lune.   
  
"THE GIFT OF MUSIC IS WELCOME. WHAT KNOWLEDGE CAN WE GRANT YOU?"  
  
"I want to know why I given Hope?"  
  
"SHE IS YOUR DAUGHTER. SHE NEEDS YOUR PROTECTION WARRIOR."  
  
"So it's true, I am her father. Why does she need my protection, I was once your enemy."  
  
The female oracle looked sympathetically upon Angel. "DID YOU NOT SEE YOURSELF IN HER FACE? THE SLAYER DID NOT TELL YOU ALL BEFORE SHE LEFT? THE CHILD NEEDS YOUR PROTECTION BECAUSE SHE IS THE FINAL ONE."  
  
"The Final What?" Angel shouted.  
  
"YOU BORE US MORTAL LEAVE AT ONCE." Angel tossed another CD to the male oracle and Beethoven's 5th symphony filled the chamber. "SHE IS THE FINAL ONE OF HER MOTHERS DUTIES. NOW BE GONE."   
  
In a flash of light Angel found himself flat on the ground and back in the vault underneath the post office. He was for once thankful that the PTB had given him as close to a straight answer as he was going to get.  
-x-x-x-x-  
Angel could hear the two heart beats as he walked through the Hyperion towards his new room. As he passed Hopes ajar door, she caught his eye. She lay, her hair spread out across the pillow, on the bed, dressed in Cordelias over-sized T-shirt. Angel saw for the first time what Cordelia must have looked like when she was 2 years old; vulnerable to the world and yet peacefully unaware as to what her future would hold. He neared the little girls bed and sat beside her, his figure sinking into the mattress. Hope stirred slightly before turning to face him and snuggling futher into the pillows. Angel removed his duster and lay down beside her, stroking her hair and loving watching her sleep. It was all he could do to stop himself sinking futher into his shrinking pit of despair. The Powers were right; Hope needed him to protect her, protect her from what he wasn't sure but Willow would help with that. Angel slowly drifted off to sleep beside his daughter now that his body had adjusted to the fact that he was no longer a Vampire and couldn't keep on going for days without sleep.  
  
-x-x-x-x-  
  
Angel could feel someone watching him as he slowly came around from his sleep. A pair of huge brown eyes stared back at him with a pink rabbits ear sticking out of the culprits mouth.  
  
"Hope, what are you doing up at..." He glanced sleepily at his watch. "6 in the morning? huh?"  
  
"I was hungry but you don't have anything but these in your refrigerator and I couldn't open it." She held up an out-of-date blood pack.  
  
Angel bolted upright and snatched the pack from the little girls hands. She stared back at him, scared and confused. Angel saw Hopes confusion and quickly realised what he had done. "I'm sorry Honey but these aren't for little girls like you." The smell of fear dissipated from the room. "I know how about we about we wake up my friend Willow and then we'll go out for breakfast. You can have pancakes or what ever it is that you eat." Angel suddenly realised he didn't know what a two year old ate or even what kids eat full stop.  
  
"OK but there is a man and a lady down stairs. I think they're waiting for you. One had blonde hair and speaks all funny. The lady didn't say anything."  
  
"Hope stay here and don't move OK. Angel will be back up to get when it is OK to come down." He placed Hope on the bed and set her fallen rabbit back in her hands.  
  
He headed down the Hyperion's stairs and carefully looked around, hearing only one extra heartbeat. As he rounded the corner he spotted Hopes two extra visitors and worry began to creep over him. His well practised stealth attack pummelled Spike against the wall before he knew what literally hit him. Angel felt a sharp kick to his torso and he dropped Spike and turned to face his attacker. The girl was no older than 17 and she looked at him with a familiar hate and determination in her eyes. Familiar because he had seen the same determination in Buffys eyes when she was training or fighting but he knew that hate from his own thoughts at every demon he killed or when he had finally left Darlas clutches. His thoughts were interrupted by a punch to the face and a kick to his solar plexus that left him flying across the smooth lobby floor.  
  
"Lea. Enough." A voice shouted from the top of the stairs. Angel looked up to see Willow, fully dressed, staring down at them. "Angel this is Lea, our new Slayer. I didn't know how long I was going to be here so I asked Spike to bring Lea here so we could continue training. I'm her Watcher." she looked at Spikes angry face. "Angel, Hope is crying in her room. I think she needs you."  
  
Angel glared at Spike and walked up the stairs. Hope was sitting on her bed, crying softly into her tiny rabbit. Angel crouched down beside her and gently lifted her chin away from the rabbits soft body.  
  
"Hope, why are crying?" Angel asked with a voice full of maternal concern.  
  
"The man with blonde hair didn't have a heart beat; he was dead. I got scared when you left me alone. Angel why are you taking care of me?"  
  
Angel knew now would be that time to tell her the truth but he didn't know if a 2 year old would be able to understand.  
  
"You see Hope. Spike didn't have a heart beat because he died a long time ago but something happened to him and now he can act like he's alive. Now.."  
  
"You mean a Vampire! David explained it to me. He said I was intelly advanced."  
  
"You mean intellectually?" Hope shook her head. "That's good. You see I take care of you because I am you...I'm your daddy." He watched for a reaction but she just seemed to be drinking in the information. "David was looking after you until I was ready to take care of you. You don't have to call me daddy but I you have to know that I will never leave you alone OK. You might not always be able to see me but I will never leave you OK."  
  
Hope didn't answer him, instead she flung her arms around his neck and gripped on for dear life.  
  
"Right how about you go in the bathroom and get washed while I pick out something for you to wear and we'll go and get pancakes."  
  
"With surup?"  
  
"With syrup."  
  
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-  
  
Jack cooed softly in the back of the rental car as Anne made her way passed the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign. A shiver ran down her spine as she passed the cheery looking sign, somehow she sensed that the sign hid what Sunnydale was like. She couldn't shake the feeling of danger as she checked into the only descent hotel in Sunnydale and placed Jacks carrier onto the double bed. She pulled out her list of places she had to check out and the first was the local Records Office, the man by the grave had mentioned her mother dying so that was the only way to prove what he was saying, not that he had any reason to lie. The second was the University of Sunnydale, he had said that was where she first met Riley so if she didn't attend then Riley must have. After she unpacked Jacks things she headed back into Sunnydale center, still unable to shake her sense of dread. The Town Hall was a huge building dating back to when the town was first established, but for Anne it held more of a purpose than a history lesson. The Town Hall was also the Records Office for births, death and marriages. The lady at the front desk had kindly shown her, with a motherly touch, where the records for any deaths for the last six years would be. The bookcase was packed solid. 'A lot of people seem to die here' thought Anne as she flicked through the names. They were mostly 16 to 35 years of age and died under mysterious circumstances. She didn't know where to start because she still couldn't remember her mothers name or where she had lived. A name caught her eye and filled her with urgency and panic. 'Elizabeth Anne Summers': Her name. What was someone by her name doing in the deaths register? She pulled out the file and began looking through it.  
  
Name:- Elizabeth Anne Summers (Also know as Buffy)  
Age:- 20  
Next Of Kin:- Father untraceable, Sister - Dawn Summers.  
Cause of Death:- Assumed multiple fatal injuries caused by a fall from a large height. Body was never recovered but 6 witnesses saw her fall. Death was inevitable.  
Buried:- Plot 354 in East Cemetery, Sunnydale.  
  
The colour drained form her face; she was staring at her own death certificate. People had thought she had died. The news that she had a sister was more of a shock to her than the death certificate. If she could find her sister then maybe she could start piecing thing together. As she placed the file back into the metal file box the death certificate next to hers caused a stirring in her body: Joyce Helen Summers.  
  
Name:- Joyce Helen Summers  
Age:- 42  
Next Of Kin:- Daughter - Elizabeth Anne Summers  
Cause Of Death:- Aneurysm caused by previously know malignant brain tumour. no suspicious circumstances.  
Buried:- Plot 213 East Cemetery, Sunnydale.  
  
It was true: Her mother was dead and her father hadn't even bothered to find her sister, when she had died. A ripple of hate ran through her but was quickly forgotten as she picked up Jacks carrier and headed to the cemetery. Luck was on her side as the sun stayed high in the sky, Sunnydale was not a place she wanted to be in when it was dark. Everyday she had visited a grave, everyday for a month. Today was the first time she had been to the grave to leave flowers or to tell Riley what she had been up to that day or about what she was painting. Instead she was now standing in front of her mothers grave, a mother she couldn't remember any more. Her hand ran gently over the inscription in an attempt to rationalise her new situation. A memory flashed through her mind of a time she had long forgotten. She was standing in front of this very grave but it was newly dug and it was a little later in the afternoon. A man appeared behind her and slipped his hand in hers. It was the man from Rileys grave, his loved ones grave sitting besides her. She saw herself with the man, curled up underneath a tree talking, kissing. He hadn't changed at all in those six years, except from looking more haggard and now defeated. The result from the death of Cordelia, his loved one, no doubt. His name ran easily off her tongue, unused for years but yet brought a longing pain to her heart: Angel!  
  
At last her classes had finished, three years into her English degree and she was being to hate Ramond Garth's lectures on how Victorian novels effected today's writings. Dawn noticed the figure beside her mothers grave and began picking up her pace. Her heart took a plunging leap as she neared the stone reminder and the woman's appearance came into a better view. Her bottle blonde hair highlighted with ginger streaks, long down her back. The petite woman held a baby carrier loosely in her hands as if she was in deep though. Dawns hand raised and tapped Anne on the shoulder. Anne spun around at the interruption to her memories.  
  
"Buffy?" Dawn whispered hopefully. "Buffy, it's you?"  
  
Buffy stared at the girl as she tried to place her somewhere in her memory. "My name is Anne Summers not Buffy." Then Anne stopped. The death certificate had said that she was also known as Buffy at school. "I must be Buffy. Who are you?"  
  
"I'm Dawn, your sister. Don't you remember me? I saw you fall, I saw you die. We buried you up there." She pointed up the hill, under a young willow tree. "You jumped to protect me."  
  
"I know, I saw the death certificate today, but I'm alive." She guided Dawn to a bench. I had an accident in England and lost my memory. I can't remember anything up to about three years ago when I came out of the coma and met Riley, my husband."  
  
"Why are you called Anne? You married Riley! He cheated on you, well sort of, and you married him."  
  
"I couldn't remember the first part of my name but Riley had told me it was Elizabeth so I just stuck to Anne. What do you mean Riley cheated me? You knew him? This is getting confusing, why don't we go for coffee?"  
  
Dawn agreed and they headed off to the only Starbucks in Sunnydale. Dawn told the story of Buffy Anne Summers from the start when they had all moved to Sunnydale, leaving out the part about Dawn only being a ball of energy only granted the power of a mortal since it would make her safer.  
  
"You see? So you and Angel were like these tormented star-crossed lovers. He lives in LA now with Cordelia Chase, Wesley and a guy called Gunn. Willow is there with Lea, the new Slayer and Spike to help look after Angels little girl. I don't know how he managed to have a kid or who with since Vampire can't have kids."  
  
"Cordelia Chase? I recognise that name. She was the name on the grave that Angel was burying. He said something about a two year old called Hope. They were married or lovers at least." Buffy felt hurt by this and changed the subject. "I thought that Vampires couldn't go out in the sun. Well when I met Angel it was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was blazing. He wasn't turning into no fireball then."  
  
"I don't know but here." Dawn handed Anne the address to the Hyperion Hotel. "Buffy...I mean Anne, don't leave us again please. Your my only family and I can't face losing you again. You don't know what I went through when you died. Please." Dawn flung her arms around Anne's neck and sob lightly before pulling back and placing a feathery kiss on Jacks forehead.  
  
"I think I'll keep the name Buffy. It has a sort of...attitude to it. I guess it used to fit. You know when I was the Slayer. I better get going if I'm gonna make it to LA for night fall." She turned to Dawn and looked her straight in the eye. "I will be back Dawn. I promise."  
  
Dawn walked away from Buffy, leaving her to make her way to the car. Buffy made a quick stop at the hotel to pick up there things and explain to the receptionist that some urgent business had come up so she would be leaving a day early. The journey to LA was fairly traffic free until she hit LA city center and at 6pm and hit the rush hour traffic. After 30 minutes in a traffic jam she had arrived at the Hyperion Hotel, stunned by it's beauty gothic appearance. She hadn't been surprised or astounded when Dawn had told her all about demons, Vampires and Slayers. To her it seemed natural and now she knew why. While driving, Buffy had tried to place Dawn in her hidden memories and after an hour had found her. She was the annoying sister that seemed upset her life in every way. The memory that had clicked into place was when they were at the funeral home picking out a coffin for their mother, they had been arguing over which one Joyce would like to be buried in and Dawn had felt left out of the decision. There was also a red head that Dawn had described as Willow: her best friend. Dawn had shown her a picture of Xander and Anya together at their engagement party. It was all clicking into place at last.  
-x-x-x-x-  
The heavy knocking echoed throughout the hotel lobby, alerting it's inhabitants to the visitors that stood outside. Hope sat on the floor playing with Lego blocks her daddy had bought her that afternoon, along with all the new toys and clothes that were sitting up in her new room. Hopes head spun around to the door a few seconds before the noise was heard and stared plaintfully at the old oak panels. She had turned to Angel, who was putting the finishing touches to his lego house, and said 'Daddy, someone is at the door.' Angel had simply looked at her in confusion until he heard the resounding sound. He walked over to it, his guard up, his hearing in a focus attitude. When he pulled back the door, he felt as if it was his first time seeing her again but this time he didn't have Cordelias strength by his side.  
  
"Buffy...I mean Anne. I expected you to come here sometime. Come in." He motioned her through the door to feel Hopes eyes on his back. "Hope this is Buffy, Anne, Ms Summers. She's an old friend of mine."  
  
"Angel, I'm using the name Buffy now. You never know it might bring back some memories. Hello Hope. Your certainly your daddies little girl aren't you."  
  
The groups began to filter out of their spaces on various sides of the hotel lobby. They all reflected the same sound: A sound of disbelief and confusion. Buffy noticed the petite redhead on her left hand side and started out towards her. Willow backed away slowly but stopped when she felt Buffys warm hand on her face.   
  
"Willow? Willow is that you?"  
  
Willow couldn't believe what she was seeing and she had seen some pretty unbelievable things in her life. "Buffy?" She whispered, covering Buffys hand with her own. "I can't believe it!" Willow flung her arms around Buffys neck and held her in a long embrace before the gurgling of a baby disturbed her reunion with her not-so-dead best friend. "Who's this?" Willow asked in baby talk to Jacks smiling face. "Ah look he's smiling."  
  
"He probably has wind. This is Jack, Rileys son." She took one glance at Willows face and shook her head. "I have a lot to tell you guys."  
  
A cough came from a darkened corner near the stairs to the training room. "Do you remember me, Slayer?"  
  
Buffy glinted into the dark curiously but her features softened. "Of course I do Spike. I still didn't stake you huh? I must have been delusional before I died huh!"  
  
Spike looked on at her in confusion and kind, an expression Buffy was getting used to seeing again, but quickly hid his joy behind a fake scowl. "You've got more lives than a bloody cat. How many times are you going to die before you actually stay dead?"  
  
"Spike!" They all hissed. He turned a redder shade of pale before turning his back on Buffy and Jack, heading back down to the training in a starling silence. Lea stepped forward from behind Willow and moved towards Buffy. She grasped Buffys hand in her on and looked in awe at Buffy.  
  
"I've heard of you. My name is Lea, I am the new Slayer. I was called about three weeks ago. Your name is famed all over the world, feared by all demons."  
  
"Three weeks?, but I have been gone over six years who was the Slayers in between?"  
  
Silence descended over the room and everybody looked awkwardly over to Angel who hung his sullenly and cleared his throat. "The Slayer before was...Cordelia Chase. You used to go to school with her back in Sunnydale."  
  
"I remember her and Dawn kinda filled me in on my Sunnydale days. Cordelia, she was the one that you buried next to Riley. You were lovers?" She asked cautiously. "I thought you had the happiness curse so you couldn't sleep with anyone with out Angelus coming out to play." Buffy let her hurt at Angel turn her voice into anger.   
  
Angel turned away from Buffy and bent down to Hope. "Why don't we go and get some...ice cream before it gets dark and then we can go and get a movie?"  
  
Hope disappeared to the cloakroom to get her jacket where Angel had installed two-year-old-sized hooks for Hope. He refused to look at Buffy, instead picking Hope onto his hip and walking out of the hotel. Buffy yelled after his and made him turn around.  
  
"Angel, are you mad? It's still light outside, you'll turn to ash."  
  
"Watch me!" was all he muttered before climbing into the convertible, top-down, with Hope in her new bumper seat beside him.  
  
Buffy turned to Willow, a mixture of horror and utter disbelief written all over her face. Willow slowly placed her hand on Buffys back and lead her into on off the old offices, deep inside the former Angel Investigations.  
  
"So how much do you remember now? You said that you couldn't remember your life before you died but you remembered Spike and I."  
  
"When I met Angel in London he said that he knew me in Sunnydale so I went back there and found mine and my mothers death certificates. When I went to my mums grave, Dawn found me there and she told me all about my life in Sunnydale and why I was there and what I was. It all came back to me, you know, like the missing piece in a jigsaw finally clicking into place and you finally get to see what the picture is." Buffy chuckled to herself. "I've kinda got a bit poetic since you last seen me huh? I guess it comes with the whole painting thing."  
  
"You're wondering about Angel and Hope aren't you?" Buffy nodded. "Right time to tell you a story that no one except me, Angel and Cordelia know. When you died, Cordelia blamed herself because Angel was in another dimension saving her when you died and she never had a vision to tell of your death. She ran away from Wes, Gunn and Angel and they never saw her for six years, she vowed that when she had made up for her part in your death she would come back but she never did. Anyway, Angel found her fighting a demon and followed her back to her place by the sea. It turned out that the Powers had granted her the right of Fate and asked her to be the next Slayer. She fought for six years as well as having looking after the Powers closest people including you. You've gotta understand Buffy that she carried around the knowledge that you were alive and not be able to tell anyone, not even Angel. Eventually she did and she took him to see you, a chance to say goodbye. Cordelia did a very brave thing, she saw that he would be happier with you instead, as his Fate dictated, with her so she ended her life so that he could back to you. Angel was granted his Shanshu, a chance to become human, by Cordelia and told that he would receive a gift called Hope."  
  
"But Angel told me that he couldn't have kids. I don't understand how he has a daughter that is two years old and his when he became human three weeks go."  
  
"Hope was gift from the Powers. She is genetically Angel and Cordelias child in every way except that Angel and Cordelia were never lovers. There was never enough time for them to act on the feelings they had for each other."  
  
"But we were meant to be eternal lovers. It was our destiny, our Fate to be together and Angel was to become human and we would live happily ever after." Buffy whined.  
  
"Buffy this isn't about you at all. Give Angela a break. He has just lost the woman he loves who gave her life for his and he is learning to be a parent. You had seven and a half happy years with Riley while he only had a week with Cordelia." Willows face softened as she gazed at her best friend again. God how she had missed her. "So tell me, what have you been doing all these years you've been 'dead'?"  
-x-x-x-x-  
  
Angel pushed Hope on the swing in the nearly empty park as the sun slowly began to set on LA, stirring the night alive. Hope climbed off the swing and tore the ball from Angels arms with surprising strength and started to run across the grass. Angel stood for a moment watching as she took off at lighting speed down the playing field, the ball bobbing wildly in her hands. Her brown curls, that reminded him so much of Cordelia, were tossed in the summery breeze, her laughter filling the air. Her laughter was her mothers giggle and it warmed his heart for the first time since he had seen Cordelia again. He didn't need pictures or home movies to remember Cordelia, he had a living memory in Hope but the sadness filled his heart as he realised that his Final One would be shackled to a life of demons and apocalypses. His little Hope would be the final Slayer, chosen to fight to her death in order to save humanity. But for now she was his 'Little Hope' and always would be.  
  
"Daddy!" She shouted, "Come and catch me." Angel breathed a sigh as he finally heard words that were never meant to grace his ears: His own child calling him Daddy. 


	3. Leaving It all Behind

Authour Note: Sorry about the soppiness at the end. All my uni buds have gone home and I miss them all like crazy.

Dedication: All my friends from Uni who I have seen me through a tough month + a bit. Thank-You. Safe journey home.

Hidden Truths - Part Three

----------------------------------------

  
**'Leave It All Behind'**

`````````````````````````````

****

There's something up here

That makes me wince

And I still got the feelings

That I've felt ever since

I got to this place, arrived at last

In front there's the future right back

There's the past

Everything's moving so fast.

Lene Marlin - Flown Away

The back pack clung to her back lightly as she made her way down the sun lit corridors, the morning bell ringing out, ushering pupils into class along the hall. She stifled a yawn, last night had been hard and she hadn't got to bed until 3 that morning, normally that wouldn't a problem but this was third night running and she needed a break. Balancing life as a senior in school and a Slayer-in-training wasn't easy but she took a little comfort in the fact she wasn't the only one to try it. Hope had grown up without a mother but had learned all her female wills from Willows monthly visits and Buffy's three monthly visits, hearing tales of her mother and how she help the Scobbie gang when they were all at High school, before she helped burn it down. Her father had told her what had happened to her mother when she was ten. It saddened her deeply that her mother had taken her life, leaving her one parent down but she looked up to the woman she never knew because she had given her life so that her dad could live. 

Hope sat twirling the silver locket between her finger that had once been Cordelias while Sam sat besides her scribbling a quick note in the back of his Math book. Hope and Sam had been best friends since the first grade. He had teased her because she was a year younger than everyone else was and she was the smartest in the class but they soon got over it and now were inseparable. Angel had given Hope the keys to Cordelias house by the sea as a premature graduation gift. Both Sam and Hope had been accepted to UCLA after they graduated and had now started living together since it was only two days till graduation. Sam tapped his laser pen lightly on her shoulder and moved closer. He quickly past her the harshly scribbled note and moved back to his original position. She opened the letter quietly to stop Mr Deatner from turning around on them.

'You were late last night. You really need to get some sleep soon. You look like Hell. Love Sam.'

Hope giggled and opened up the built in laptop on her desk and opened a conference screen.

HOPE: Thanxs Sam. I was looking 4 some...Germans. It was a hard night. Looking 4ward 2 2nite though. U think the Jaguars will win?

SAM: Yes of course we will. Ur squad ready? Pom-poms and Ra Ra Ra? LOL.

HOPE: I need to go home first to train and then I'll see you at the game. You better be careful, I don't want a brushed date for the graduation ball. Speaking of which, Dad is coming around before we go to take some photos.

SAM: You worry too much about me. OK see you at the game tonight. WATCH OUT! Dent Head is watching you!! Love Sam.

HOPE: CYa, Love Hope.

-x-x-x-x-

A roundhouse kick to head to confuse and if she had enough force, to break their neck. A punch, left hook, right hook to send them back leaving her enough time for her to pull out the silver handled stake a Vampire friend had given her and launched it into her foe. The hologram disappeared back into the projector on the ceiling and her father stepped forward clapping, grey streaked hair catching the lowly lit lights.

"Well done Hope. That was the hardest setting so I think you're about ready for anything."

Hope collapsed in a heap on the floor and looked up at her father. "Thanks dad! So do I get tomorrow night off or what? I mean it is my prom and I have been nominated for Prom Queen, not that I want it of course."

Angel chuckled. "You're just like your mother; always wanting to be the centre of attention. Of course you can still have the night off. I'm still coming around before you go though. I think me and Sam need to have a man to man talk now that you two are living under the same roof."

"DAD!" Hope whined. "Me and Sam are just best friends, nothing else." Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Eww that is way too icky to imagine."

"That's what me and your mum used to say but the feelings were always there."

Hope propped herself up on her elbow on the floor as he father sat down beside her. "Tell me how you and mum met in LA again."

Angel sighed. "Come one Hope, haven't you heard this story enough? You asked for it every night since you were five." He looked at her defiant face. "Fine but it will have to be quick or you'll be late for the game and Sam will be in a huff. We had both ran away from Sunnydale; Her from her fathers downfall and I ran from Buffy and what we couldn't have. I was always too wrapped up in Buffy to notice your mum or any pain she must have been through when she found Willow and Xander." He turned away from Hope. "We met at a party that a girl I had been protecting had taken me to. I never liked to socialise and I was trying to blend into the crowd but I wasn't working. I smelt her before I could see her; she always used strawberry and apple soap when she had been part of the Slayerettes. When we met up she was all smiles and positive things like she had a condo by the beach and that her acting career was going great but it wasn't true. You have to understand Hope, I never really knew your mum as an individual but she was just the tact-less girlfriend of my mortal, annoying enemy. I was tracking this girls case and I found her dead, I felt anger and I wanted to get the man who she had asked me to protect her from. When I got to this guy's mansion, he was trying to kill Cordelia. She had gone there because her acting career was a non-starter and she really needed the break but she had figured out the guy was a Vampire and tried to get away. I came in all 'grr'" He waved inverted fingers in the air. "And picked her up from the second floor and jumped over the balcony. Afterward, I took her back to the old investigations building and Doyle fell for her straight away. I only hired her because she was a reminder of Sunnydale and Buffy. Doyle was right, she did have a humanising effect on me." He chuckled a little at the irony.

"So who were the Slayerettes?"

Angel looked back at Hope, his tears now firmly stored away. "I can't believe I haven't told you about them before. They were what all the people that were involved with Buffy were called. Willow had seen the Cordettes, your mothers old group in school before she met Buffy, and renamed the Scoobies the Slayerettes."

"Seemed that no matter what Buffy did to people, she always came up on top."

Angel stared at Hope lazily. He was used to these retorts against Buffy. Hope had spoken them ever since Angel had told her his history when he was a Vampire. With that he had told her about Buffy's involvement in his life. It was painful but he wanted his only child to know all about him, his life and her mum's involvement in them, especially now that she was to become the Final Slayer. 

"Hope, not tonight, please." Hope stared at him innocently. "Blackening Buffy's name is not going to bring back your mum and all you do is make her feel awkward coming here."

"Well she is a stranger in our lives, well she should be. She keeps trying to worm her way into our lives and back into your love life. Buffy sees me as competition and a reminder of the life you could have had with mum. She sees me and knows that as long as I am around, you will always block her affections away out of loyalty to mum. I'm competition for your love as well. Think about it, back in Sunnydale, you locked yourself onto her existence and fed from her life as a human. Now you have me and have a life again, suddenly she is not the centre of your world. It's not all my fault."

"Hope I am not going to argue with you over this again. Now go and get ready or your gonna be late and Sam will get mad."

Hope picked herself off the floor and headed up to her old room on the first floor. She came back down ten minutes later, adorned in her red and mustard yellow cheerleader colours and pom-poms and each hand. Her hair was down in long hazel curls, ringlets on odd strands. Angel stared in disbelief. He did every time he seen her like this. There were photographs from the Sunnydale Yearbook of 1999 that showed the cheerleaders' squad, Cordelia in front of them with their various cups and plagues. Hope stood in front of him now but it could have easily have been Cordelia 24 years ago.

"Opps. You have the glazed look in your eyes again. That usually means your brooding over mum again." Hope dropped her pom-poms to the floor and went over to her stoic father. "I miss her as well. Everyday. Now I have to go or I'll be late." She kissed his forehead softly. "Don't brood, she hated it."

****

I watch you growing sometimes

I see myself in you

It can be scary but kinda funny too

I hear you talking

A lot of similarities

Your choice of words

And all the fantasies

Angel sat on the cold, wooden floor for ten minutes after Hope had left, 'brooding' just wishing that she would be there on Friday to watch her own daughter graduate and then on Saturday to help her into her dress and put the finishing touches to her hair. Wishing she would be gushing over pictures and constantly cooing over how cute Sam and Hope looked together. But she would never be there again and Hope would always look into the mirror and not see the other half of who she was. He had caught her trying to touch her reflection when she woke up in the morning or after she had put her make-up on to go to school. Angel regretted never taking photographs of Cordelia; all he could offer Hope was the charcoal drawings he had of Cordelia. They were in plenty, ones of her twiddling a pencil while she was at her desk or ones of her sleeping, too exhausted to go back to her apartment after a vision or demon hunt. She was growing up a perfect picture of her mother but Angel knew that her looks and her person would only be around for a few years. Hope was to be the Final Slayer and her death was prophesied. He hoped that she was like Buffy and live till she was in her late life and she could have children and grow old in an old rocking chair, telling stories of the woman who stopped evil Hell taking over the world they now live in.

-x-x-x-x-

The hooter rang out around the stadium, signalling that the Jaguars had won the final game and on home turf. Hope lead her team through their victory cheer and the whole crowd cheered with them. The final game was finished now it was time for the Prom King and Queen nominations to be announced. Hope knew that herself and Sam were on the list together because their mutual friends were still convinced, after 13 years that they were MORE than friends. Well wasn't it high school tradition that the quarterback and the head cheerleader dated? Hope knew that there were feelings there but she was scared that if she tried to explore these feelings, then Sam would freak or worse still move out and leave her. Like mother, like daughter, much. She took as deep breath, as the tannoy ran out her name, and then ran onto the field jumping and shaking her pom-poms just like she was meant to. She was excited that she was nominated but it wasn't the most important thing in the world, anymore. She knew it was coming, she could feel it. She didn't know when or why, but she was going to be called...soon.

Sam watched, a proud stroke going through his heart, as Hope bounded onto the field. He smiled to himself. She was always acting how everybody else expected her to act, except when she was with him or down at the shelter. For years they had always been like kids together, pillow fights, rolling around on the floor tickling each other until one would win. Sam always came out the victor but he knew that Hope always let him win because with her strength, she could easily pin him to the floor. Not that Sam minded. He had came close a few times; her pinned beneath him, glowing in the aftermath with an innocent look on her face. All it would take was for him to move a few inches closer and place his lips softly over hers. The only thing that stopped him was ruining a good thing was when Angel had given the keys to the seaside condo. He was delighted at being able to live with Hope, so why spoil a good thing? But it wouldn't last long, because he was one of only six people that knew she was doomed to fight 'evil forces' until she died and sealed the gates over. He only had a few years left.

-x-x-x-x-

There he was sitting in the dark again. Something had caused him to brood and Buffy didn't need two guesses to figure out what it was. Cordelia! She couldn't help but be jealous of the dead woman, she had everything Buffy had wanted with Angel: A child, she had given him life and now Angel still pined for her. 

"Huthum." Buffy cleared her throat and Angel turned around, the lights coming on to illuminate his hunched figure. "You were brooding again weren't you? I thought it was a Vampire thing."

"I was just thinking that's all. " He stood up to greet Buffy. Even after all the years had pasted between them, he still didn't feel in love with her. There was none of that passion and innocence there anymore, there hadn't been since her 17th birthday. "How was journey?" This was how it always started.

"Oh you know, the shuttle was delayed at the port, misplaced luggage, the usual stuff."

"Mum!" A moan came from behind her. "Why do you always bring so much stuff?"

"Oh yeah and brought Jack with me."

Angel walked up to Jack and took the bags from him with ease and placed them beside the main staircase. 

"Hello Jack. Difficult journey huh?"

"Nah not really. You would think getting from London to L.A in an hour wouldn't leave much room for anything going wrong but it can. So how are you Angel?"

"The usual. A few more grey hairs, a difficult daughter and an ageing body that I always wanted. I'm doing good."

"Speaking of Hope, is she here?" Buffy asked stepping forward.

"No, she and Sam are at the game and then they are going back to the condo. They graduate tomorrow." Hopefully her one will go off with a little less bang than her mothers one did."

"Hey Angel, can I go into Hopes Hollo room?" Jack asked sensing her mothers jealousy over Cordelia.

Angel nodded his head and looked at Buffy. Her face had slightly fell when he had mentioned Cordelias presence but he put it down to the sadness at her death.

"So...um...do you mind if I go and put my bags into my room and maybe freshen up a little bit?" Buffy asked sensing the awkwardness.

"Yeah, I'll put your bags in the usual room and then make a start on some dinner, can't imagine you ate much on the shuttle."

Buffy sadly nodded and then turned and followed Angel up the stairs, taking a look around the hotel to see if anything had chanced in three months. Of course they hadn't, they hadn't change in 15 years.

****

A Little Later:

Buffy descended the main staircase, the chance to freshen up had brighten her face. Angel looked up from his book as the caught the tiptoe sound on the marble stairs. The wrinkles on her face from years of stress and worry were cleverly disguised. Tragedy was clearly visible on her posture but she kept the pain behind her smile.

"Still got the vampy hearing huh? I thought you would have lost that a long time ago." She smiled.

"It's fading, old age. Everything is fading including the hair colour."

"I never thought I would see the day you go grey"

"Hope says it makes me look dignified, like Giles. Speaking of the Watcher, how is he?"

"Oh you know him and Willow, always jetting off to some far flung corner of the world looking at some demon or other." Buffy caught Angel sniggering at her. "What?"

"You sound like Giles so much. How are you now? Over Dawn?"

Buffy hung her head in a slight sadness. "I know she wasn't ever meant to be human but I'm glad she still had a chance at life. We put up a mock grave next to moms and mine. I can't believe that Hope is going to graduate tomorrow. It seems like only yesterday that you were learning that 2 year olds can't eat doughnuts for breakfast like their daddies or Gunn. Oh how is Sebastian?"

"Still a mixture of Faiths five-by-five personality and Gunns street wise attitude. He's a real girl magnet. When Hope goes to the mall with Sam and Seb, she talks about them as her boys and bodyguards. She isn't the one that needs protecting."

They both turned to look as Jack walked out, slightly out of breath.

"Hope is coming round with her dress and make-up for the graduation ball. Said she phoned ahead incase mom was here."

Angel frowned at Jacks lack of tact. Buffy simply looked away. She knew all about Hopes 'disagreement' with her but she tried not to let it get in the way of her seeing Angel.

The three sat in the entrance hall; discussing the last three months since they had last seen each other. Every time Angel mentioned Cordelia, Buffy looked away. Every time Buffy or Jack mentioned Riley, Angel tried to listen unbiased. Eventually Angel heard Hopes car pull into the hotel drive. She still used Cordelias old Porsche even though gasoline was a valuable as gold, only existing if it were made synthetically, even that was expensive. 

Hope breezed into the hotel only breaking into a slight run when Jack opened his arms to her. He easily picked her up in his football player arms and spun her around once. They hugged and then Hopes eyes settled on Buffy and the smile left her face only to be replaced by a fake smile so like her mothers.

"Buffy, you came for my graduation, how sweet. I guess it will be our turn in two years to come and see Jacks graduation huh? Still nice to see you." She looked away from Buffy and turned to her father, the genuine smile back on her face. She put a territorial arm around Angel's waist, making sure that Buffy saw. "Dad, I know I was meant to be getting ready at the condo but me and Sam, agreed it would be better if I got ready here as he will hog the bathroom and some of mums things are here. Please. He'll be picking my up so you can still have that man to man talk you wanted with him."

"This is your home as much as mine so of course you can get ready here. I can't wait to see you. I remember your mothers' dress. It's still here up in her wardrobe if you want to wear it."

Hope looked away sadly. "I don't really want to wear it. It was her special dress for her special night." Angel nodded sympathetically. "Is Willow coming too?"

"Willow and Giles are off on their travels again. Buffy has just told me. We'll send them all the pictures. Now go and bring your dress in then get back home for some rest." Angel ordered.

Hope ran back outside and picked her dress slowly out of the car, draping the protective cover carefully over her arm. She picked up her full vanity case with her spare hand and took them inside. She watched Buffy crane to get a look at the dress but not even Sam or Angel had seen it so there was no way that Hope was letting Buffy see it. A few minutes later and the dress hung proudly on the wardrobe door; a slight glimmer of a diamond giving away the necklace that was carefully hung on the dress. The graduation robes were back at her house and as she sat on her old bed and looked at the mural of her mother, hand drawn by her father, she gazed at the woman she would never know and sudden realised how tired she was. She would need all her rest for tomorrow was another big day.

****

The Next Afternoon:

The award for outstanding achievement goes to a young lady who has skipped a year and proven herself a most gifted pupil in both academic and sporting categories. I have the proud honour of presenting the scholarship to UCLA and the award for outstanding achievement to Miss Hope Chase."

The audience stood up and cheered as Hope gave her certificate to Sam and walked slowly up the isle towards her principle. Funnily, she kept looking from side to side, expecting to see a big snake appear out of nowhere but I never did. She graciously took the scholarship and a small speech to thank everyone. Sam sat down the front watching her lovingly but covering it up with fake puking noises as she made her speech causing her to laugh once in a while. He liked to see her laugh and smile. That is when she looked most like her mother and she could brighten a room with a single flash of her teeth. He couldn't help it. He had fallen in love.

Angel sat watching his daughter with pride. He couldn't hide it from his face. In his hands were a set of carbons and some of the old paper he had kept from when Cordelia had given his the first paints set so long ago. Below the piece he was now drawing on was one of Hope receiving her award from her principle. The other was a working progress. Hope's face adorned the page as she now stood on the podium, her dark hair blowing in the wind, restricted by her scholars' hat. Her eyes danced in the afternoon sun as she spoke clearly and from the heart to the attentive crowd below her feet. She was a born leader like her mother. The picture that Angel was now drawing would be put in a glass container on Cordelias grave in England on his quarterly visit to her grave. There were 15 years worth of drawings there, enough to keep Cordelia updated on their daughters progress, Angel was in no doubt that she watched them closely anyway.

Beside Angel, Buffy sat. She snapped away with her camera, glancing sidewards every now and again to check Angel's progress on the picture. She knew where it would end up eventually. She had seen the glass scroll tube on Cordelias grave on her third visit to Riley's grave after she regained her memory.

The crowd cheered and tossed their hats into the air as Hope toasted the Class of 2022. Sam and Hope joined Angel, Buffy and Jack on the walkway. Angel picked Hope up around the waist and spun her around. 

"Your mother would have been so proud of you up there. She couldn't have done any better herself even though no one could give a speech quite like Cordelia Chase."

"Thank-you dad. Now, I'm going to give Sama ride back to the condo and then I will be back at the hotel to train and then go to my prom." She clapped her hands excitedly. 

"Sam, I am sorry that your parents couldn't be here."

"Well you know war corespondents, always where the wars are plus they got the live web feed back. They saw the whole thing. But thank-you anyway Mr O'Conner. I'll see you tonight."

Sam and Hope headed back to the car, without saying goodbye to Buffy or Jack. Hope couldn't help it. She was angry at Buffy for being there instead of her mum but she felt sorry for Jack, caught in the middle. 

Sam and Hope sat in their comfortable silence, waiting for either to speak.

"Don't you think that you're being a bit harsh on Buffy? She is only trying to be your friend." Sam asked, for the first time speaking against Hope in Buffys' defence.

Hope looked at Sam in surprise. "No, I don't think I am being harsh. You heard all the things I told you about how she and Angel were the tormented lovers and went a bit nuts when she heard about mum being in LA with dad. Then she comes walking back into our lives after 6 years of being dead and just expects to pick up where she left with dad. She married someone else and the when he popped is clogs she finds her long-lost eternal lover and for the last 15 years she has been trying to jump his bones. I think I have every right to be angry at her."

"Hope, eyes on the road babes." Sam shouted as she veered of to one side during her rant.

They sat silence until they arrived back at the condo. Sam wished her good luck and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Try and be nice to Buffy, for your fathers sake. Their graduation wasn't exactly the most trouble free event in history. It will have some tough memories for your father and Buffy. Remember your mum was there as well."

Hope hung her head in defeat and watched as Sam walked silently to the condo and disappeared inside. She knew deep down inside that Sam was right.

The journey across the city was quite on the ground as usual because most of the cars now flew above the streets; it was safer. The hotel stood out in the dying sun as Hope pulled the Porsche down into the underground car park.

"Dad? Dad!" Hope shouted through the hotel but received no answer.

She saw the door to the courtyard was open and she smiled sadly to herself. As she walked into the streaming sunshine, Hope saw his bulking figure sitting on one of the benches that sat around the centre garden. She placed a delicate hand on Angel's shoulder and smiled. 

"I thought I had limited your brooding to three hours a day. You brooded this morning and then at the Graduation Ceremony. I think that exceeds your limit." 

She looked at what he was staring at. The tree stood tall, it's 17 years showing in the branches that stretched towards the light, craving warmth. The tree reflected it's memory, of a man so tall and strong in many ways than his willowy frame would let on. Wesley formed the back bone of her fathers family, his mediation always stopping World War III breaking out when Cordelia and Angel played Scrabble: Like the trunk of the tree. Hopes gaze mainly fell on the little bush in bloom with red, velvet-like roses. There was an exact bush of roses 5456 miles away in London where her mother was buried. The rose bush there was 10 years old and had spread around the grave so with the ending of the summer, the red petals fell on her grave like teardrops. 

They sat for 5 minutes, staring at the plants before them in the dying sun.

"She would have been so proud of you today. All dressed up in her robes and your speech. When I looked up at you, I saw her in you."

"Don't forget dad, that I am half yours too. Where else would I get my ability to remember everything? Brood? My unique sense of humour? Dad, love mum but don't live in her memory. She wouldn't want you to brood your humanity away when she can't tease you about it. "

Angel turned around and looked at his daughter straight in the eyes. He saw, behind their chocolate brown, the wiseness beyond her age that Cordelia had had. A pain echoed through him. His daughter eyes should be dancing with a young carefree light like Cordelia had had 24 years ago when they had first found each other in L.A.

"You better go and get ready. Sam will be here and he hates how you make him wait. About you and Sam...is there anything going on there that I should know about?"

Hope stared in shock at her father. "Dad, we're just friends...great friends. We have been friends for, like, forever. I mean I know that he attractive but euch," She screwed up her face. "Me and Sam...never. People just can't take a platonic friendship." Hope babbled on.

"I think the lady doth protest too much!" Angel chuckled. "You and Sam make a nice couple, but I think you should tell Sam how you feel, maybe start admitting it to yourself."

"You think huh? Oh Wise One, just how do I do that?"

Angel sighed and rose from his seat. "It doesn't matter how you tell him, just make sure that you do. Take it from the experience of an Oh Wise One!" With these parting words, Angel left his daughter to mull over her thoughts.

Hope watched Angel ascended the stairs to his room, she knew he was going to brood. A buzzing feeling came over her body, starting in her chest and spreading outwards. It felt like electricity travelling through her nerves like the electrons in copper wires. It took a few seconds for the feeling to reach her toes but as it did she felt a jolt go through her head. It felt like how Angel had described Cordelias visions. Hope knelt on the floor ads the images flashed before her eyes. She saw Buffy's calling, her first death, and her joy at the defeat of the Master. To Hope, it was like a video diary of Buffy's life as a Slayer. Hope saw Angelus, the day that Buffy sent Angel to hell. Every emotion spread through her until the diary stopped at her second 'death' at the hands of Glory. As the haze slowly cleared form her eyes she saw that she was back in the hotel. Maybe it had all been a dream but then a slow realisation of what had happened: She had been Called. A sweat broke out on her brow as the world suddenly began to seem a daunting place. The phone ringing on the reception desk tore her attention away from her new 'condition'. She hesitantly picked it up.

"Hello."

"Hope? You've grown up a bit."

Hope smiled as she recognised the voice and the face. "Xander. God we haven't heard from you in so long. How are you?" She peered into the video screen at Xanders' anxious face. "Xander, what has happened? Is it Anya and the baby?"

"No. Anya still hasn't had our baby boy yet. Hope I thought I should tell you. Our Slayer died tonight, about a hour ago."

"I know." She stated in a quiet voice.

"How could you know alread…" Xander trailed off. "I see. Are you OK? Does Angel know?"

"I'm fine, a little shaken but fine. I haven't told dad, as he would stop me from going to my Graduation Ball tonight. Listen here he comes. I will call later and tell you about my new Watcher. He should be here in twelve hours."

"Hope. Good luck." Xander said defeated and knowingly before disconnecting the video link.

Hope was just attaching the last piece of hair with a grip when someone knocked at her bedroom door.

"Who is it?"

"Its Buffy. Can I come in?"

"OK." Hope sighed and prepared to be civil.

"Oh Hope you look amazing. You look so like Angel… except the dress and make-up." Buffy giggled. " I thought you might like to wear these." Buffy opened up a small black box to reveal a pair of pearl earrings. "They were my mothers and she gave them to me so I thought I you might wear them as I don't think I will be having anymore children and I don't think that Jack would suit them.

"Oh, I have these." Hope flashed the diamond earrings that sat perfectly n her ear lobes. "They were the ones that Dad gave to mom on her 20th birthday." Hope turned around to Buffy and lost her fake smile. "Buffy I don't need another mother thanks."

A shout echoed from down stares. "Hope. Sam is here. Are you ready yet?"

"Yeah dad, I'll be down in a sec."

Sam stood in the middle of the vast entrance hall looking rather nervous. He couldn't wait to see Hope in her dress. He had sneaked a peak at it earlier in the week and it looked lovely. The red would bring out her brown hair wonderfully. But he was nervous because to night was the night. The night that he was going to tell Hope how he felt about her. Sam had asked Angels advise and he had told him to go for it because he'll never know what could have been. Sam detected that he was talking about what had happened with Hopes mom more than he was about Hope and himself. Tonight would be the night where he gained or lost the most important person in his life: Hope O'Connor.

Hope slowly descended the marble staircase in the middle of the Hyperion. She took in a small breath as she looked at Sam in his tuxedo, looking like the James Bond of her mother's days. Her newly improved hearing heard Sam mirror her breath and she smiled. Buffy lingered at the top of the stairs knowing that this was not her place and that this isn't where she belonged, Angel or no Angel.

Sam took Hopes hand and turned to Angel. "Thank-you Mr O' Conner. I think I might just take your advice."

"Call me Angel as I feel you may be around me for much longer now."

Hope turned to ask Angel what Sam had meant but Sam took her arm and whisked her away to his waiting car. Angel simply smiled as he took her picture with his old instant camera and looked at the picture. It may as well been Cordelia that was standing there. Sam winked at him and drove silently down the street.

At The Ball:

Sam felt good holding Hope in his arms. Angel's advice had been solid and now he was ready. He let Hope a little away from his body and looked at her brown eyes.

"Sam!"

"Hope!"

They spoke at the same time.

"Sam, I have something to tell you. I was Called tonight. At the hotel. Xander phoned to tell me that the last Slayer had died and that maybe I should be prepared for me to be next. But I knew already."

Sam simply smiled at her. "Well I better kiss you before you slay me then."

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. A blue spark, that no one else could see, passed between their lips. The Fates had decided.

Fin….at bloody last.


End file.
